The American Revolution Gets Graphic
A Colorful New Edition of Rick Atkinson’s 'The British Are Coming'
By Penny Parrish
ADVANCE CONTRIBUTOR
IN REVIEW
I no longer think of graphic books as resembling the comic books of my youth. Serious literary topics are now being turned into works of art through words and pictures. It’s a fascinating way to absorb history.
Rick Atkinson is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winning author whose Liberation Trilogy covered World War II. His current project is a trilogy on the American Revolution. The first two books are out, and it appears the third may end up being two more books, turning the trilogy into a tetralogy. The first book, The British Are Coming, was published in 2019. Now, seven years later, it has been reimagined in graphic form, just in time for our semiquincentennial.
The first page shows a night scene at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston, where a ship is being unloaded of its cargo—tea. The book ends on March 17, 1776 when Washington drives the British from Boston after a 333-day siege. In between the covers, various battles from Lexington and Concord to the war in Canada are drawn with vivid colors.
Readers see the wound in Benedict Arnold’s leg. They see Washington’s starving and ill-clad soldiers walking barefoot and bleeding in the snow. They see members of Parliament in London, and the King, trying to dispel the revolution. The words are brief but powerful alongside the images.
Author Nora Neus whittled down the 800-page original book for the graphic edition. Italian artist Federico Pietrobon created the stunning illustrations.
The British Are Coming: Graphic Edition may be made up of words and pictures, but it’s not just a children’s book. Many quotes from primary sources of the day make some language difficult to understand. Big words are used: “But the fight about taxes had metastasized into a struggle over sovereignty.” I read the original years ago, but I was so mesmerized by this graphic version that I sent a copy to a friend to read with his kids. The pictures help draw in children, and the adult sharing the book can provide explanations and answer questions. It’s too bloody for a bedtime story, but a wonderful way for parents and grandparents to share what happened 250 years ago that brought us where we are today.
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Rick Atkinson’s The British Are Coming: The Graphic Edition, Volume 1. Ten Speed Graphic, $35, 272 pages. Published June 2, 2026.